The new high-performance video management system collects high-resolution file data from 60% more video cameras than before with a 41% smaller datacenter footprint and 37% decrease in energy consumption.
Auckland Transport (AT) operates in an always-on world in one of New Zealand’s largest, fastest-growing urban cities, home to 1.7 million people. Their video camera network records footage that helps manage city-wide traffic flow, and deter public safety infractions, violence or crime. AT is also one of many organizations supporting the Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP)—a multi-agency effort that encourages public transportation use to reduce congestion, environmental impact, and road death or injuries.
“Our closed-circuit television (CCTV) network is all about keeping an eye on what’s happening around the city from a safety perspective,” said Roger Jones, Executive General Manager, Business Technology at Auckland Transport.
Unfortunately, the camera footage is overwritten after time, while data grows with increased use cases and more cameras throughout the city. This was problematic for AT with limited scalability of its video management system (VMS) which creates a petabyte of data per week”. The agency is also required to save the footage for seven years in case of public safety incidents.
The AT legacy server was unable to support these growing demands and their desire for more sophisticated analytics. If a server went down, Auckland Transport’s data would be lost. There was also increasing time, labor, and costs incurred to maintain an aging system. Their vision involved bigger plans than the original VMS could support. They sought a modern, unified solution that could grow with their needs.
They chose Qumulo running on the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform. “It delivers the value that we, as a public agency, need,” said Jones. Specifically, AT transitioned its VMS to the Qumulo File Data Platform on an HPE Apollo 4200 Gen10 server running on the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform. HPE handled their end-to-end transition. AT shifted its camera feeds and was up and running.
“Our CCTV network supports so many different use cases across the city, and the beauty of it is that they all are supported by one back-end system.”
With the combined solution of Qumulo and HPE, AT gained measurable benefits, including:
- A reliable file system that handles unstructured data in the exabyte range.
- The ability to support 60% more cameras, scaling from 2,500 to 4,000 for improved visibility into Auckland street-level activity.
- A 41% reduction in their data center footprint; they went from 68 rack units across three racks to 40 rack units across two racks at a co-located data center.
- A 37% decrease in energy consumption and reduced carbon emissions from lower power and cooling in a system two-thirds the size.
- Reduced upfront costs and a pay-by-use model that handles requirements for disaster recovery, backup, and user management without needing to use third-party applications.
A single dashboard from Qumulo shows data consumption, compute, and storage trends to enhance AT’s forecasting and on-demand planning as they continuously add more cameras and gather insights to better serve the people of Auckland. “We have a very close relationship with HPE, with engagement at the executive level for joint road map sessions. Additionally, Qumulo provides real-time support—our team has a direct line with engineers.”added Jones. This solution takes away management’s headaches with seamless upgrades and continuous uptime so AT never has to take Qumulo or the HPE system offline.
Today AT can access a single dashboard to see consumption, as well as compute and storage trends, which is important for forecasting and on-demand planning. “We’re able to dial up additional storage and compute power as we add more cameras at the edge—and we are always adding more cameras,” Jones continues.
With future VMS plans—adding cameras near schools for student safety, using AI to support traffic flow improvements, or better managing data across different public transportation methods—AT expects that business and city growth will continue. Plus, the strategic lessons they’ve learned and outcomes experienced are good examples for other public agencies looking to enhance their transportation planning and public safety.
Learn more about the powerful combination of HPE solutions for Qumulo file data storage to support your expanding capacity and performance needs, on-premise or in the cloud. The full HPE and Qumulo joint case study on Auckland Transport is available here.
